Father's Day 2012

This is for the good fathers, the one's who don't make the papers, the one's struggling to survive in a dead-end job, to cover the nut, who come home every day, who fight to get home from wherever they are.
This is for the fathers who are unemployed, who know that manhood is more than a paycheck, the fathers who fight back the inner demons of self-doubt and self-loathing.
This is for the fathers who don't give in to temptation, to anger, to self-destruction, who love their children and their wives, even when it's hard.
This is for the fathers who know that their country needs them, their families need them, even when it seems that they don't.
Like the song says. Man, I've been there.

Anthony Caplan is a writer, blogger, teacher and homesteader in New Hampshire. He is the author of the novels Birdman, French Pond Road, and the forthcoming Latitudes - A Story of Coming Home, due out at the end of June from Hope Mountain Press. Find out more about him and his work at http://www.anthonycaplanwrites.com.